Clendinen, who had been battling Lou Gehrig’s disease for the past two years, wrote throughout his career about his experiences and the experiences of the everyday American, tapping into the public’s consciousness and expressing many of the sentiments of the time. He focused much of his work on life as a gay man, writing about the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and his own process of coming out.

Clendinen began his career as a columnist for The St. Petersburg Times in Tampa, Florida, later joining the editorial and writing teams of publications including The Journal-Constitution, The New York Times, and The Baltimore Sun.

As he began to wrestle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Clendinen's narrative shifted toward death and his mortality. “We act as if facing death weren’t one of life’s greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges. Believe me, it is. This is not dull,” the writer explained in an essay for the New York Times Sunday Review in 2010.

Clendinen is survived by his daughter, Whitney Clendinen, and his sister.